Where are the international iPad minis with LTE?

Literally seconds after Apple opened pre-orders for the iPad mini I bought a 32GB model in white. That was on October 26. A month ago. Not only hasn't it arrived yet, it hasn't even shipped yet. U.S. iPad minis + LTE began arriving weeks ago but international iPad minis + LTE aren't being treated equally. That's nothing new. Apple famously (or infamously) delayed the release of the original iPad and iPad 2 almost a month outside the U.S., both online and at retail. With the iPad mini, the international Wi-Fi only versions were available for delivery and purchase day and date with U.S. versions. It's only the LTE (or cellular, if your carrier doesn't support LTE) versions that seem to be MIA.

The iPad Mini Wi-Fi + cellular was advertised here as available to ship in late November. That now leaves 4 days, and and means that, once it arrives (presumably 7-10 days later) time from pre-order to fulfillment will be over a month. Staging the rollout makes sense, and prioritizing the U.S. also makes sense. It simply shows that no company, not even Apple, can do everything at once, everywhere at once.

It took Apple an embarrassingly, outrageously, incomprehensibly long time to get Lightning cables and adapters into stores. During that painful period, early device adopters were left without connectivity, sometimes without even charging solutions for their brand new iPhone 5 handsets (especially those who lost or damaged the original, lone Lightning cable that came in the box). It was a rare and disappointing gaffe by a company that's usually the best in the business when it comes to getting product onto shelves.

The lack of international iPad mini + LTE shipments is nowhere near as bad as that. Apple still has a few more days left in November to at least ship the devices. And to get iTunes 11 done, and a few more weeks to get the new, wafer-thin iMacs out the door.

But that's a lot of product to leave to the last Holiday minute. And that's the problem with doing so much -- covering a lot of ground spreads anyone, even Apple, thin.

Reader comments

Where are the international iPad minis with LTE?

I live in Vancouver. Ordered the same model as you (white 32GB w/ LTE) in early November (so not as early as you). Still waiting for mine to ship, though it now says "Preparing for shipment" instead of "Processing Items" like it did up until this morning.

I've never understood why people go to user sites for competing products to post stuff like that--do they really need to amuse themselves that bad?! I can't imagine spending my time trolling around the other Mobile Nations sites, for example, just to look for an opportunity to post some sarcastic comment...Go figure.....

It's been 3 weeks for me now,I check everyday for some kind of sign that they have been shipped to Canada,I gave my iPad 3 to my wife thinking I would have had my new one by now and of course she won't let me use it anymore..lol

On November 16th, my order status changed to "Available to ship: 1 - 2 Weeks Delivers 30 Nov, 2012 - 07 Dec, 2012" and nothing changed ever since. As it is the 27th already, I don't think I will get it this friday.
I also heard from guys in Germany that their earlier delivery timeframe has been changed to a later one.

I work for an official reseller in Australia. We only just received the LTE 4th gen iPad, and Apple is being stingy with supply of the Wi-Fi mini at the moment (if they'd given us as much stock as they did for the third gen iPad launch, we'd have plenty sitting around doing nothing, but as is, nowhere has stock, which is pushing demand). It reeks horribly of deliberate withholding of supply to us.

A nearby Apple store has been telling customers November 29th is when they'll start appearing in LTE variations, but we're not so hopeful. Our purchasing department has suggested to us that "probably this year" is a more accurate time frame. Unfortunately, everyone is very vague.

Guys,
Went into the 5 Ave NYC store last evening just to ask when the LTE Mimi will be in stock, and they said there in, so I perchased a back 32 LTE Mini!
BTW the Apple online store still says unavalible in NYC?

Here in Finland, I placed the order as soon as I could, on 4 Nov. The "promise" made in the order confirmation was that the order would be delivered between 28 Nov - 5 Dec. However, no news of shipping came until yesterday when the order status was changed into "preparing for shipment". Today, I finally received a shipping notification according to which the iPad will be delivered "on or before" 13 Dec. That's a delay of 1-2 weeks. In the greater scheme of things, it is nothing much, but nevertheless ...

I ordered my iPad Mini Cellular in Sweden the minute they released them online. Just now the money has been reserved on my account and the order details says "preparing for shipment". I really hope I will have it on friday. Otherwise it will be a looong weekend. :(

My LTE iPad mini got delivered to my home in Gatineau Quebec Canada today. Does that make me the first international delivery? I ordered mine at 3 am eastern to the 26th of October, minutes after Apple raised the curtain. It shipped on the 27th from Shanghai, so that was a really quick delivery.